After some low-level fretting for the better part of a week about the weather (remember, last time we flew to South America for the Antarctic, we missed the ship in Valparaiso), we managed to get out of Toronto on time. Our flight to JFK, on a Bombardier Regional Jet, was so bumpy that the pilot wouldn't even let the flight attendants get out of their seats, never mind serve any refreshments, but that didn't delay us.
The flight to Buenos Aires was also uneventful and quite comfortable. We both managed to get at least four hours of sleep, and with a two-hour time difference to Buenos Aires, we weren't too badly jet-lagged once we arrived. Which was a good thing! We arrived just before 11:00, got in one line to pay the reciprocity fee for visitors, then got into the next line to clear immigration. Is this starting to sound familiar?? The good thing about that was that by the time we reached the luggage carrousel, the bags were already out. And, shades of the first time we were in Buenos Aires with Mom and Dad in 2000, one of the bags had already been taken off the carrousel by somebody and left on the floor! Good thing they're bright red and hard to miss. Of course, then there's the last lineup to put your bags through the x-ray machine to make sure you're not bringing restricted goods into the country…
Once we were clear of the airport bureaucracy, we found the A&K representatives and got our transfer to the hotel – a mini-bus that would hold 16 for just the two of us! Because we booked a suite in the ship, we were staying in the Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires. It is a beautiful hotel, built onto an old mansion that now houses the really fancy suites, and is only a couple of blocks from the Recoletta District, where the high class homes are. The hotel itself is just off of the main street of downtown Buenos Aires, the Avenida 9 Julio, or 9th of July Avenue, so named for Argentina's day of independence.
We were staying in a rather nice mini-suite, but only really had enough time to look around and take a few photos, since we had to change to be ready for a 2:00 city tour.
Our guide picked us all (about 18 of us) up in the bus and off we went. We had visited most of the sites when we were here in 2007, but this time we had a few ulterior motives: we wanted to see what the Casa Rosada looks like WITHOUT scaffolding all over it, Monica wanted a small watercolour from one of the artists in the La Boca area, AND she was in search of a hair-brush! There's always some little thing that misses the suitcase…
The only problem was that this was the first long weekend of the summer, and most of the shops were already closed, so Buenos Aires was not the place to try to find a farmacia with a hair brush. We'd have to take our chances in Ushuaia. Here are a few photos from the tour:
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| The Evita balcony at the Casa Rosada |
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| One of the Family Tombs at Recoletta Cemetery |
Since we were on our own for dinner, we had already decided to go to one of the steak houses just across the street from our hotel. The people we had been talking to recommended one called El Mirasol, so we decided to try it. The food was excellent, even though all we had was a Caesar Salad and our Steaks – no potatoes, no veggies, no desserts. But take a look at the size of the steak…
We had to put our bags outside the hotel room by 10:00, so we arrived back in time to reorganize our clothes for the next day and get them outside. We fell into bed at 10:15 with a 4:00 wake-up call as we had to gather in the lobby at 5:00 for our transfer to the airport to fly to Ushuaia.
Nobody ever said expedition cruising was a leisurely affair, even before you get on the ship…
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